Microsoft VP Silvia Candiani on transforming media with AI & walking the ethical tightrope

AI tools are becoming “the companion for every consumer,” Candiani says, alluding to the increasing integration of the tech into daily life. “We’ve seen the fastest pickup of this technology out of all technologies in the last few years.”

Nonetheless, she urges organizations to proceed with caution. Microsoft believes “there should be a set of processes within each company to make sure that [certain] checks and balances are present – so that every company maintains the customer’s trust,” Candiani says.

Recent data from The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority indicates that 75% of companies in 2024 used AI in some capacity – up from 55% in 2023. Considering the ubiquity of the technology, the stakes for getting it right have never been higher.

Stream the full interview on The Drum TV.

The era of AI agents

Among Candiani’s top predictions for AI’s ongoing integration into media and entertainment is the boom of AI agents in the coming months.

AI agents, a technology once confined primarily to customer service applications, are emerging as a cornerstone of the next phase of artificial intelligence, with tech titans including OpenAI, Salesforce and Hubspot investing in customizable bots that can serve as independent actors designed to manage specific functions autonomously. The rise of AI agents was also a focus of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s Monday night keynote presentation at CES.

Candiani anticipates an explosion of AI agent development in the coming months, likening them to “apps of the AI world,” each designed to tackle highly specialized tasks.

She sees Microsoft’s AI-powered chatbot Copilot as a potential “conversational entry point” for many users, but expects that in the future, specialized agents will drive domain-specific performance.

This shift aligns with a broader push by tech giants to make AI more accessible and versatile.

At Microsoft, the low-code Copilot Studio platform can help democratize agent creation, allowing non-technical users to design AI agents tailored to unique needs, Candiani says.

AI agents, in her view, will revolutionize workflows across media and entertainment. From automating content localization to optimizing programming schedules, these agents promise to streamline operations, she says.

Revolutionizing content and personalization

Candiani says that, beyond AI agents, machine learning and AI-driven tools are already enhancing content creation and personalization in the media and advertising sectors.

In particular, she sees value in the ability to transform a single piece of content into multiple formats, adhering to brand guidelines, which may significantly reduce production time and costs for brands and agencies.

Meanwhile, she expresses enthusiasm about generative AI applications for crafting personalized messages for individual consumers.

“One of the areas that I’m most excited about is engaging consumers and monetizing in a different way,” she says. “That’s been [a major goal for marketers]: to be able to have the right message [delivered to] the right customer at the right time. But that’s really hard to do. And so now we’re able to segment audiences and identify what [kind of] content is going to resonate with that consumer in the best way. And with generative AI, you can personalize that message to every consumer in a very easy way at scale.

“We’re getting to a place where the dream of one-to-one marketing at scale is possible. Marketing is becoming more of a dialogue and less of a broadcasting [activity].”

Recent industry developments, such as TikTok’s rollout of AI-driven avatars for brands and creators, support Candiani’s assertion.

Candiani is also anticipating improvements to performance marketing thanks to the influx of AI in the industry.

“You know the famous saying, ‘50% of my marketing spend is going to be wasted – I just don’t know which 50%’? The barrier is getting [lower] – it’s to a place where not only will we be able to have more insights on what is driving performance [but also, we’re] getting to a place where I can really see if the advertising money that I’m putting in is driving outcomes for sales and acquisitions. That is what I’ve been working towards, too, and we are getting ready to see that in reality now.”

AI’s double-edged sword

Despite her enthusiasm for the future of AI in media, Candiani is conscious of the various ethical and legal quandaries still looming in the space – from consumer data privacy to intellectual property rights and transparency about content provenance.

Data privacy, she insists, is foundational to Microsoft’s various AI efforts – both internally and in partnership. (Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest backer, investing nearly $14bn in the ChatGPT parent since 2019.)

“We’ve built all of our tools in order to have [privacy] at the heart of what we do. And we’ve been a frontrunner on this topic.”

For customers and partners, Microsoft publishes a set of guidelines for AI use, which cover “principles like fairness, accountability, privacy, security,” Candiani says.

Furthermore, the company has developed a number of tools that enable organizations to “control whether what you do is aligned with [the] principles [you encode].” The tools can help detect violations of predefined ethical rules. “That is important because principles without ways to measure [those principles] is not very useful.”

The challenges are sure to intensify as US states – in lieu of a comprehensive federal law – move to regulate AI developers and organizations’ use of AI.

Candiani, for one, remains highly optimistic about the future of media, which she expects will be supercharged by advancements in AI.

“With some of these AI tools… the barrier to entry to the industry is getting lower – so we can expect to have way more variety of content, more voices and more independent creative companies that enter the ecosystem. And I think this could be a good thing.”

Stream the full interview on The Drum TV.